Fish In The City

Michael ArceneauxJune 27, 2005

At first you didn’t mean that much to me. But now I know you’re all I need. You bring out something new to me. Now that I’ve found….

…catfish. What? You were expecting love? I’m sure that’ll happen someday. This weekend I had an epiphany…twice: I found two restaurants that serve catfish. For a minute there, I was beginning to think those didn’t exist on the east coast. In D.C. all I ever found was cod or some other dry fish that you have to drench in hot sauce to enjoy. But no, not here. Not in New York. I always knew that this was the greatest city and now it has been confirmed. Thank you Dio’s in the Village and Sylvia’s in Harlem for making a catfish-loving southern boy’s weekend.

Last night a couple of friends from Houston who go to school out here took me to the Village Underground for open mic night. It was cool. Some of them made me wish I could still sing. Oh well, my album, “I Can’t Sing, But I Still Have Platinum Dreams” will be in stores one day. I’m almost certain I can become the next Al B. Sure (He couldn’t sing either). If that plan doesn’t pan out, there’s always that writing thing I mention ever so often.

July is fast approaching and I can’t help but think about how much I don’t want to leave. Sure it’s expensive. Sure I have to save up just to call myself broke. But eh, I love it here and I don’t want to leave.

One more year at Howard and I’m done. I’m hoping that I score a job in New York so that I can begin my career in the city I’ve always wanted to settle in. As I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, I’m petrified of not landing a job at all, much less in New York. I’m starting to slowly but surely worry less and less about it. If it doesn’t happen next year, it will happen eventually. All I know is that I can’t go back home. Not only would I feel like a failure, but I would be stuck back in the environment I spent forever trying to escape.

Then again, Houston has Pappadeaux’s and man oh man do I love their catfish and fried alligator (yes, I said alligator).

Alright. It’s time for the New York Times, Salon, Leela James’ debut album, and the new Lauryn Hill mixtape.

But before I go…“I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator,” Obama said. “As a law professor and civil rights lawyer and as an African-American, I am fully aware of his limited views on race. Anyone who actually reads the Emancipation Proclamation knows it was more a military document than a clarion call for justice.”

And as for what Lincoln may have thought about Obama’s election to the Senate in 2004?

“He may not have dreamed of that exact outcome. But I like to believe he would have appreciated the irony,” Obama said.